Review by whatsallyreadnext - How We Disappeared

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whatsallyreadnext 's review for:

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

4.5

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I decided to read Jing-Jing Lee's How We Disappeared last month after hearing a lot of recommendations for the book from the bookstagram community. It's been a book that I'd had my eye on for a while and after reading it, I'm not surprised that it was longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction. Trigger warnings for this book include: death, rape, sex slavery.

How We Disappeared is a beautifully written yet harrowing story of the struggles that women faced during the Japanese occupation of Singapore in the 1940s. As a seventeen-year-old, Wang Di was snatched from her family in Singapore and forced into being a 'comfort woman' at a brothel for Japanese troops. Fast-forward to the year 2000 and she is still haunted by her experiences and what she saw happen at the brothel. In a second narrative, twelve-year-old Kevin hears his beloved grandmother mumble parts of a life-long secret that she's kept from her family just before she passes away. This spurs him to find out the truth about his grandmother and what he uncovers is much bigger than he initially realised.

As the reader, the mystery behind Kevin's grandmother's confession had me guessing for most of the book and speculate how the two narratives of Wang Di and Kevin would eventually merge together. However, the alternating narratives of Wang Di in the 1940s, Wang Di sixty years later and Kevin took a little while for me to get used to and keep up with. I found that I was most interested in Wang Di's account from the 1940s, though the trauma she faced and saw was difficult to read at times. I think that How We Disappeared is a strong debut from Jing-Jing Lee and it raises awareness of a period of time in SE Asia that some people might not be aware of. This book reminded me of Mary Lynn Bracht's White Chrysanthemum which I read several years ago and was also about 'comfort women' - I would highly recommend both of these books!

Content Warnings